Saturday, August 27, 2011
Hiba Moeen
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After months I happened to go to school in the morning this time but the scorching sun and it’s friend, bright daylight seemed to make me feel too much of a normal human. My mind was too blank to experience anything, inside or outside the bus except the hot engine and it’s casual way of roasting us passengers around, I found myself consumed by Robin Cook’s science fiction despite knowing that his endings are abrupt and not so good, at times even annoying.

A dialogue that caught my attention as a reader seemed to be well timed, “College is the ultimate selfish experience.” Well, not exactly that and somewhat along the same lines, college does let you recognize real personalities and real faces, it often makes people’s thoughts transparent or maybe you grow up to feel the differences around you and admire those who ought to be admired. For me college has been one of the best experiences in life in terms of education and getting to understand people …

The ultimate disgusting road experience came again but luckily rain water had evaporated from the post road effects of Cantt Station. Things seemed pretty slow and thanks to Ramzan, there seemed to be no smokers or the presence of the fresh stench of niswar … now niswar always reminds me of my school days when the same stench of early morning (around 6:30 a.m) niswar used to mingle with the cool breeze to result in an overwhelming effect and attack of nausea …

My thoughts, all of a sudden were overshadowed by the thunder effect of a fat woman’s weight! Ok lets use euphemisms here: ‘a disproportionately distributed lady’ who let her bulk down on an almost nonexistent seat … I mean, for God’s sake, know your own weight, acknowledge it and be nice to those around rather than squeezing, suffocating and cracking the bones of those around. I do understand and empathize her ‘fatness’ who tried to lay me to rest maybe for the sake of this last semester and it’s happenings and my victims but all I had to do was forget what I was reading and try to breathe in and breathe out, inhale … exhale … again, breathe in and breathe out … phew, finally it wasn’t long until the bus reached my destination. I collected my remains and my documents (the by product of too much of an academic thought process … ok, mere printouts that is) I guarded with the remaining Oxygen in me and headed for school … I feel sorry for the minds of those who laugh when I call my business school a school, the definition of which is unknown to some.

After spending a few hours before my class and trying to kill time with bird watching (wood peckers, storks and other migratory birds, we do have a lot of wildlife around … I mean most and ‘ALOT’) and keeping an eye on the fruits of our campus trees my sleep cells really tried to play tricks on me in our Finance class, had I been noticed dozing off for a few seconds there was no chance of being spared for a leg pulling session but then … there were a lot of heads in front as shields …

Since we know it’s Ramzan we do get to see a lot of warmth and humanity other than the opposite extreme of a violence spree we are all victims of these days. There are good people and there are bad people but then bad people can’t kill the good in those wonderful people around. Since, it’s Ramzan, people are seen on roads, melting away because of the heat of Karachi and yet helping others end their fasts on time. What really surprising was that they were even around at 6 doing that … a group of people had cartons of Nurpur milk and other beverages to distribute for each bus. However, it should be meant for those living far away, who wouldn’t have been able to make it on time till 7:05, the rest I feel did not deserve much besides having a duty to fulfill for others around. I knew I would make it till 6:30 so I understood my position as a traveler. The packaging of this brand, Nurpur was quite interesting … it was very cluttered, for a moment it would make you feel it’s a juice brand but then it’s milk. Olper’s on the contrary, has a very striking corporate colour, simple and yet attractive packaging, may be because of the colour, red, that stays on the viewer’s retina for a longer duration.

But what actually has disappointed their consumers this time is the absence of their Ramzan campaign, Olper’s without such a campaign this month is like a banana without it’s peel. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a banana buying expert in Ramzan and a true customer of big, beautiful, long bananas … therefore, bananas without their clean yellow peels look incomplete … that’s also a form of packaging.

As I was heading home, the pathan cobbler at the corner of the street was being harassed by a beggar woman who was begging him for employment and not money but he was extremely agitated and told her she couldn’t do this job, ‘Forgive me, just go away!’ he exclaimed in fury. Now that woman was the kind of a beggar who has a value addition of being a pickpocket as well, these beings travel in groups and carry a unique eye for your wallets and pockets. But, my friends, there are new ways of begging …

In light of the current violence of the city, thanks to our inhumane, terrorists (a synonym of a politician often throwing tantrums on the phone like extinct and dangerous babies) and idiotic politicians we do get to see barriers on streets nowadays but there is always hope given to the nation by people like those we see on the roads distributing dates and other stuff for fellow Muslims, just to make this month easy for us, they stand harsh weather conditions and uncertainty around.

"Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my apple tree!" - Martin Luther King

Disclaimer: If you happen to be fat and if you are fat and know that you are fat and accept the reality that you are fat, it’s ok, you may continue doing do but please be nice to those around. Most of us were and will be fat some day so empathies and sympathies are all I have … but the same words again, ‘please be nice to those around’. Thank You!